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Around 600 police officers and security personnel of B&H private security companies have started conducting the police action “Svjetlost” (“Light”). The goal of the action is to identify persons who pose a threat to the state security. So far six persons have been arrested, and recently group of journalists attacked.

“Do not touch Roma, they are infected” is a label that has recently appeared on the counter of a bus station in Zagreb. Some of the shocked travelers took photos of it and forwarded them to the media in Zagreb in order to draw attention to the racist breakdown in the Croatian capital.

The current president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in B&H – HCHR, Srdjan Dizdarevic, right, has announced his imminent departure from the NGO sector, and his move to active political life in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Reporters Without Borders regrets that President Alexander Lukashenko (Aliaksandr Lukashenka) signed a decree on 1 February 2010 establishing extensive control over Internet access and online content. “The Belarusian authorities are trying to tighten their control over the Internet as they already did with the traditional media,” Reporters Without Borders stated.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) appeals chamber decided today to reject the standard used to exclude genocide charges in the ICC’s arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir of Republic of the Sudan.

Upon the judgement of 18 November 2009, ref. no. II KO 79/09, the Supreme Court reopened the vetting process after the statement of the European Court of Human Rights. Due to this fact, it should be considered a test-case.

The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Republic of Turkey to pay a total of over 40,000 Euros to 20 Turkish journalists as compensation for having violated their rights. Welcoming the judgment, IPI Board Member Ferai Tinc, Chairperson of the IPI Turkish National Committee, said they would like the canceling of prison sentences in cases concerning the media.

This Wednesday, Human Rights Human Wrongs film festival’2010 begins in Oslo. Co-organized by the Human Rights House Oslo, the festival is strongly based around important HR issues, through a variety of styles of films and inclusive debate with inspiring guests. First on the schedule is the Danish movie “Burma VJ: Reporting from a closed country” (screenshot on the right).

An Ethiopian judge sentenced a journalist to prison on Friday in connection with a January 2008 column that criticized Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s statements about religious affairs in Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, according to local journalists.